Women's economic empowerment and opportunities through access to irrigation water and infrastructure in the Turkestan region of Kazakhstan

In 2019, in cooperation with the Coca Cola Foundation, UNDP launched a partnership programme within the framework of the New World Programme to support women in 11 settlements of Turkestan region. The project intents to secure access to clean water and sanitation services, markets and resilient agro-technologies and resources, leading to an increased income and thus improving the quality of their and their family's living standard.

Three water catchments with the potential of 1.5 million m3 to irrigate 192 ha of abandoned lands will be rehabilitated. Women farmers will thus enhance their crop productivity through access to water-saving technologies such as drip, impulse, and sprinkler irrigation. Moreover, the project will facilitate 44 women-led farms, and 67 female-headed homesteads to develop post-harvest infrastructure, processing, and marketing of agricultural products; enhance their operational, technical, institutional, and marketing capacities to function in a market-driven economy more effectively.